1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to integrated circuit fabrication, and, more specifically, the present invention relates to the fabrication of quantum wire gate structures that are spacer-width patterned.
2. Description of Related Art
During the tunneling of an electron from a source to a drain in a typical semiconductive transaction, an electron will suffer a number of collisions between source and drain that cause the electron path length to increase. Because electron flow is constant velocity, the longer electron path hinders the effective transition time thereof. With the advent of quantum wire devices, an electron is allowed only to suffer collisions that will be confined within the extremely narrow channel, including collisions at the interface between channel and contiguous dielectric. Thus, where the narrow channel has a width the is less than the mean free path (MFP) of the electron, conservation of momentum law dictates a more direct route through the channel and a faster transition time from source to drain.
A field effect transistor (FET) is a fundamental building block of integrated circuits. Where metal-oxide-silicon (MOS) devices are approaching the limits of scaling based upon known fundamental technique, optimization of different components has allowed the FET to continue in the process of miniaturization. The decrease in supply voltage, however, has caused acceptable performance in the 0.7x scaling to become increasingly elusive. What is needed is a method of achieving gate dimensions that overcome scaling limits of the prior art.